Categories: OLD Media Moves

The cult of CEO coverage

An editorial in Saturday’s Boston Globe notes that the business media is falling into their old habit of fawning over CEOs.

The Globe writes, “Whatever Dimonâ€™s fate, itâ€™s worth noting that the business media often guess wrong on their heroes. ‘It isnâ€™t clear whether the deal will enrich shareholders or how the market chaos will play out. But itâ€™s certain that [Bank of America CEO Ken] Lewis is realizing the epic vision that he has long dreamed of,’ Fortune wrote last fall. Or not. Lewis, under pressure, announced his retirement this week.

“Even if Fortune, Forbes, CNBC, and their brethren guessed right all the time, their CEO-worship would still be misguided. All those seemingly irresistible rise-and-fall narratives are tangential, at best, to the fate of the nationâ€™s economy. And calling attention to flaws in the economy, while serving as a tough watchdog on Wall Street, is the higher calling for the business media.

“The failure to prevent the catastrophic collapse of the credit market canâ€™t be entirely, or even largely, laid at the feet of the media. But the nation had a right to expect better warning from the thousands of reporters employed to follow the markets, just as people had a right to expect the same from those who covered the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as news media face their own challenges, they must serve the public at large and not, in the case of business news outlets, the natural hunger of MBA-subscribers for narratives that aggrandize their bosses.”